Review: Got a Wii U? Go buy 'New Super Marios Bros. U'

NSMBU is the fourth game in this classic 2D side-scrolling series Nintendo first introduced on the DS handheld in 2006. Four of these games in six years may not seem like a lot, but this past summer saw the release of NSMB2 for the 3DS, so there has been an overload of this type of Mario gameplay as of late. On its own NSMBU is a great, fun and beautiful game that deserves your attention, but it won't feel like a fresh experience to those who've heavily played the 3DS game.

This new Mario journey starts out like any other one: Bowser ruining everyone's day. This time he and his minions invade the castle and toss Mario, Luigi and a couple of Toads far, far away. The colorful world map is set up like Super Mario World's with multiple paths, secret areas and seamless movement from one world to the next. It features a great mix of level types including desert, underwater, sky and mind-bending Boo mansions. Hazards and obstacles include moving platforms, quicksand, poisonous water, falling spikes and enemies throwing all kinds of projectiles at you. As typical in a Mario game, Nintendo wants you to check every pipe and search every nook and cranny for secrets. There are even throwbacks to Super Mario Bros. 3, one of the best Mario games in existence.

Even though mini-bosses are still easy to defeat, I felt challenged early and often to complete levels with all the Star Coins. Doing so feels very rewarding this time around. In NSMB2 the difficulty ramped up more near the end of the game and bonus content after beating it. Fortunately, that did not happen here. The overall level design in NSMBU is one of Nintendo's best. It's addicting fun and doesn't feel repetitive.

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New power-ups include the Flying Squirrel suit, which you'll see a lot of in the early stages of the game. It lets you easily glide across levels and cling to walls to avoid sliding down bottomless pits. Baby Yoshis make a return and are carried, offering unique abilities like attacking enemies with bubbles, lighting up dark places and floating in midair.

NSMBU can also be played with up to five players cooperatively: Four on Wii Remotes and one using the Wii U GamePad controller. Depending on your group of people, this can be a very good idea or a very, very bad idea. Cooperation is key, unless you want to be evil and ruin friendships. The easier levels in the beginning are manageable with more people, but later ones are a real pain due to their complexity. The person who controls the GamePad can simply tap the touchscreen to place platforms on the level and stun enemies to help (or hilariously punish) other players.

Unfortunately, you can't control a character with the GamePad in multiplayer like in single player mode. So if you only have two or three in your party and each want to control someone, you're stuck with the Wii Remotes. It's not the end of the world, but it kind of ruins the fun of playing with the GamePad with others, which is obviously the most appealing part of the new console.

Besides story mode, NSMBU features other modes of play that add to the game's replayablity. Boost Rush takes place on automatically scrolling stages that increase in speed when coins are collected, with the goal of beating these levels in the fastest time possible. Challenge Mode features a variety of mini-games that will really test one's skills. These include dashing through levels as fast as possible; collecting as many coins as possible in a level; and hopping off enemies to earn as many 1-Ups in a row without touching the ground. There's a surprisingly healthy amount of challenges to partake in, and they're not a walk in the park either.

Miiverse, Nintendo's social network, plays a big role by allowing users to view notes from others, either giving helpful hints or silly jokes about levels in the game.

It's hard to believe it's almost 2013 and we're finally seeing Mario in all his high-definition goodness. Nintendo definitely took advantage of it. NSMBU is very polished and looks amazing. I'm a sucker for the artsy backgrounds in these games, and seeing them in HD is a real treat.

The music hasn't changed too much, featuring the familiar tunes we're all used to hearing. Yes, the "bah-bahs" from past games are back, and hearing them made me miss the jazzy tunes from Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the 3DS.

Nintendo made the smart choice creating NSMBU for the launch of the Wii U console, despite it being released so close to NSMB2. This game, like other Nintendo franchises, will see a steady flow of sales throughout the entire lifespan of the Wii U - and for good reasons. It's fun both alone and with others, has that clever Nintendo level design, and is chocked full of solid content. Those clamoring for another 3D Mario game will most definitely see one sometime in the future. For the time being, though, NSMBU should not be ignored.